Wicks: All is lost on global warming without clean coal

A dramatic warning that "all is lost on global warming" unless the world finds a new clean coal technology in the next few years has been made by the UK energy minister, Malcolm Wicks.

He insists in a Guardian interview that "the stakes are that high", as he seeks to justify pressing ahead with a new generation of coal-fired power stations starting at Kingsnorth in Kent, currently the site of a major protest.

With talk of divisions within the cabinet over the issue, the government is likely to give Kingsnorth the go-ahead, so long as it is carbon capture ready.

The as yet unproven technology of carbon capture and storage (CCS) is thought to be capable of cutting greenhouse gas emissions from coal stations by 90%, but Wicks admitted the EU was well away from its target of building as many as 12 demonstration projects.

Wicks justified going ahead with a new generation of coal-fired power stations on the basis that it was the only way that a demonstration project for CCS technology could be developed in the UK.

"If as some kind of gesture we said 'no' to new coal-fired power stations, we would be in a very difficult position of not being able to develop this technology ourselves. It requires some new coal-powered fire stations for the technology to develop."

He also argued India and China were due to increase coal-fired electricity "ginormously" over the next 20 years, so it was vital to develop the technology that would, in the medium term, clean their electricity.

"World demand for coal is projected to rise by 70% by 2030, an average annual rate of 2.2%, and the bulk of the rise will come from India and China.

"China is a nation built on coal, so the idea that if we showed some kind of lead and we in Britain say no to coal and China will say 'OK we will follow' is just daft."

"We are responsible for 2% of emissions worldwide, and we have a duty to tackle that," Wicks said.

"But the real gain here, the real challenge - and if we do not meet the challenge, all is lost on global warming, the stakes are that high - is to bring on clean coal technology and carbon capture and storage.

"Once we can develop those technologies, we can help the Chinese, the Indians and others to retrofit power stations and make CCS a component of new coal-fired power stations. That is the only way we are going to tackle this problem."

After much delay, Britain has opened a competition to build a demonstration project, but Wicks admitted key issues about funding the projects across the EU remain unresolved: "We are still on chapter one on this".

Ministers are under pressure from scientists, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and some of its own backbenchers to say it will withdraw the operating consent from Kingsnorth if by a fixed date - probably 2020 - the plant had failed to use CCS to capture 90% of its emissions.

But Wicks said such a condition would mean the plant was not built at all.

He said he preferred investments in CCS by the power companies to be driven by a higher carbon price emerging through the European Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS).

He pointed to the fall in profits for Drax power station as a sign that the ETS can push up the cost of using coal. But he conceded he did not know what level the carbon price might need to rise, adding there might need to be the backstop of a minimum floor for carbon price.

The energy minister makes an unlikely hate figure for the climate change camp pitched in Kent and implacably opposed to coal.

He is hardly didactic, respects the work of George Monbiot, the Guardian columnist and environmentalist, and even thought of going down to the camp to talk to some of the protesters. Even now he would still like to meet some of the leaders if it does not cause the police an extra security problem.

He also says he recognises the superficial immediate attraction of saying no to any more coal stations. But then he points to pitfalls.

"If we were to have a moratorium on coal-fired stations … we would therefore most likely become more dependent on gas.

"I don't want to exaggerate, but gas comes from some fairly unstable parts of the world and some not readily associated with human rights and democracy."

The government is likely to make it a condition of the licence for Kingsnorth that the plant is CCS ready, a loosely defined term upon which ministers are consulting upon until September.

But there will be no obligation on Kingsnorth's owners to use CCS.

But why does the government not set a cut off point, such as 2020, by which time coal stations such as Kingsnorth would be shut if the clean coal technology was not in use?

This is the path chosen by the Republicans in California. It is supported by David Cameron, the Liberal Democrats, the Royal Society, the environmental audit select committee and reputedly some cabinet members.

Wicks is blunt. With these kinds of strings attached, he does not think E.ON would build the coal station, or the demonstration CCS station.

"I think if we did that at the moment, when we do not know 100% that CCS is going to work, the engineering has not yet been tested and no one is fully aware of what the costs might be, then that would put an end to coal-fired power stations and demonstration plant and people would build gas again."